Bark-talk

Bark-talk is the term used by Warren Spector to describe the vocal effects utilized in Epic Mickey. As a representation of the fact that a majority of the characters came from the silent film era, the characters remained silent, only speaking in bark-talk. This was Spector's decision. However, he had realized that this seemed rather silly for the characters, and bark-talk was not utilized in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, as the characters are now fully-voiced.

Trivia

Another reason Bark-talk may have been chosen for Epic Mickey is to save on the budget. Full voice acting requires for recordings to be translated and dubbed in other languages for international releases, which costs more money than just using the same audio for all regions and languages.